Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• Conflict Resolution Network (Australia)

Direct link to the Fighting Fair Guide

Direct Links to 12 Skills

• The win/win approach
• Creative response
• Empathy
• Appropriate assertiveness
• Co-operative power
• Managing emotions
• Willingness to Resolve
• Mapping the conflict
• Development of options
• Introduction to negotiation
• Introduction to mediation
• Broadening perspectives

See more resources on conflict resolution at www.peacemakers.ca/

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Conflict Resolution Network
PO Box 1016 Chatswood NSW 2057 Australia
Website www.crnhq.org

Ph +61 2 9419 8500
Fax +61 2 9413 1148
Email crn at crnhq.org

• News source:

There are several Canadian lists of mediators available on the sites of non-profit organizations dedicated to dispute resolution. Check out the following:

• Mediate BC: Directory of Mediators
• Family Mediation Canada: Mediator Directory
• ADR Institute of Canada: Directory
• See the Peacemakers Trust website for links to more lists of mediators and a
  list of community mediation services in Canada.

• News source:

To learn more about mediation processes, visit the following webpages:

1. See definitions of mediation, restorative justice and other “alternative dispute resolution” processes on the site of Peacemakers Trust.

2. See information about mediation on the website of the BC Mediator Roster Society.

3. See a Guide to Mediation on the website of the BC Attorney General’s Dispute Resolution Office.

4. See information about mediation on the website of the Saskatchewan Department of Justice’s Dispute Resolution Office.

5. See an Introduction to Restorative Justice on the website of Restorative Justice Online. Click on “restorative justice processes” to see some information about victim-offender mediation, restorative justice “conferencing” and other restorative justice practices.

6. See some articles about mediation compiled by Norman Pickell.

• News source:

Q: I’d like to become a mediator. What should I do? Should I take a degree in dispute resolution or conflict resolution?

A: In Canada a degree may not provide training or credentials as a mediator. Check out the following to find out the required qualifications.

• The BC Mediator Roster Society website http://www.mediator-roster.bc.ca/ (and click on “admission to the rosters” at the top), and also see the Roster Society’s list of training at: http://www.mediator-roster.bc.ca/List_Courses.pdf
• BC Mediation Practicum project: http://www.courtmediation.com/
• Family Mediation Canada website http://www.fmc.ca/index.php?page=12
• ADR Institute of Canada http://www.amic.org/education/mediator.html

Obtaining these qualifications do not guarantee work as a mediator.

Catherine Morris
Director, Peacemakers Trust

• News source:
• 23 July 2008
• Reporting on Conflict
• By Peacemakers Trust staff

A new Peacemakers’ Round Table has been formed this month by Peacemakers Trust.

Based in Canada, the Peacemakers’ Round Table aims to provide a Canadian-based international forum for persons interested in advancing scholarship, education and practice in constructive conflict transformation and peacebuilding including mediation, negotiation, dialogue, peacework, human rights protection, good governance, and reconciliation.

Welcoming people from all over the world interested in questions of how to build justice and support effective peaceful ways of addressing conflict, the Round Table includes members of the community from any country and from all walks of life including students, scholars, mediators, facilitators, human rights workers, ombudspersons, peaceworkers, community workers, educators, journalists, artists and others.

Activities of the Round Table will depend on the interests of those who join and become engaged.

• News source:
• 24 July 2008
• Reuters AlertNet
• By Coco McCabe

He rests his hands among the wood shavings scattered across a board on his workbench, as if touching the curls and chips reminds him of who he now is a furniture-maker in Goma and, at 17, almost a man. It’s dark inside his shop: he works only with hand tools, as there is no electricity.

But not so long ago, he was a boy fighting a war in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Egiba Sango – not his real name – is one of about 3,000 child soldiers that the Concert d’Actions pour Jeunes et Enfants Défavorisés, or CAJED, has worked with since 1997.

• News source:
• 24 July 2008
• The Real News
• VIDEO
• By Aijaz Ahmad

What Aijaz Ahmad would tell the next US president if he received a ’3a.m.’ call?

• News source:
• 24 July 2008
• The Real News
• VIDEO
• By Gareth Porter

McCain and Obama are not listening to Iraqis.

In the second part of his interview to Pepe Escobar, investigative historian and military policy analyst Gareth Porter expands on what awaits Senator Barack Obama when he deals with the power of the national security state. Porter also examines what kind of movement and leader would it take to really try to change a very rigid system, and the proposition of Obama as a new Bobby Kennedy.

• News source:

Rotary Centers provide the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in conflict resolution, peace studies, international relations, and related areas.

Rotary World Peace Fellowships are offered at six Rotary Centers, which operate in partnership with the following universities:

• Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (joint Rotary Center)
• International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan
• Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
• University of California, Berkeley, USA
• University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

• News source:
• 24 July 2008
• Financial Times
• Yes, military force alone is clearly insufficient. And yes, negotiations take time and must begin somewhere. But it is wishful thinking to assume that negotiating with insurgents from a position of weakness would stabilise Afghanistan.
• By Samina Ahmed

As the insurgency ramps up, support for “talking to the Taliban” in Afghanistan is increasing. Voices in the United Nations and in Europe favour a new set of negotiations between civil society, political parties and the insurgents, and it is a natural reflex to seek a way out of a seemingly intractable conflict by exploring all available political solutions. But while negotiations are credible and acceptable if they help resolve conflict and save lives, that will not be the case in Afghanistan’s current environment.

The problems begin with identifying those who would be involved in a “new dialogue process”. Afghan civil society is weak at best, and political parties, which have been completely undermined by lack of domestic and international support, are in no position to lobby or feed constructively into national policy formation. And who would represent “the Taliban”?

• News source:
• 23 July 2008
• Reuters AlertNet
• By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council will hold a special meeting on a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that has sparked fears of a military clash, diplomats said on Wednesday.

Several council diplomats said the meeting would most likely be held next week. Its format has yet to be determined and it was unclear what exactly the council could do.

“Perhaps we could urge the two sides to work out their differences amicably,” one Western diplomat told Reuters.

• News source:
• 23 July 2008
• The Palestine Chronicle
• By Sukant Chandan

With the emergence of the internet, online video file sharing and peer-to-peer download services in the last decade, the grip of the big production houses have decreased, and people now have relatively more access than before to a more complex and critical understanding of politics and culture. Documentary films have also played a major role in shaping public opinion, and perceptions of the ‘Other’. The Other being non-white people generally, but today specifically focused on Muslims and Islamists which, we are told, do not share or are against ‘our’ values.

Perhaps the most well-known example of a documentary film that has shaped public opinion is Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11…

Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield’s [Battle For Haditha] films have been commercial successes. However one is not so sure that they have been successful in assisting their mass audiences in understanding Muslims and their struggles for independence such as in Iraq or Palestine or throughout the Muslim world generally.

• News source:
• 22 July 2008
• National Catholic Reporter
• By John Dear SJ

Imagine this – a rigged national election. The popular candidate garnered more votes and precincts but still did not win. Now imagine the population refusing to sit back, to throw up their collective hands, to give in to apathy. Such is the story of the “Orange Revolution,” the 2004 presidential election in the Ukraine, a tale with lessons for us.

The Ukrainian people foresaw the worst and when it happened, they nonviolently obstructed the functioning of the government until justice was done. Their story can teach us a thing or two.

• News source:
• 22 July 2008
• Radio Free Europe
• By Iraj Gorgin

An Iranian parliamentary committee has approved in the first reading a controversial draft law that allows men to take a second wife, a bill that women’s rights activists have dubbed the “Antifamily Bill.”

The fierce debate on the bill highlights rising social tensions in Iran, where the hard-line government of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is increasingly targeting women’s rights activists.

The bill, officially known as the Bill to Protect the Family, has been on the table in parliament for years, the subject of seemingly endless revision and debate. The controversial clause that gives men the right to have another spouse without the first wife’s approval was actually laid aside by the previous parliament because of strong opposition from women’s rights activists.